Friday, February 5, 2010

A Journey to the Moon: A science fiction poem for children (1954)

Lots of pictures but no title today. My title translator was unavailable so I will just have to post this as a mystery book.(Update: One of my loyal readers writes:"The title in English translation is Vladimir Tschukhrov: A Journey to the Moon: A science fiction poem for children. [adamovicivan] ")

First off, the color you see (other than blue) is crayon, showing this book was owned by a child.

Without my trusty translator what I can say from observation is that it seems to be a book of poetry for children about space travel. Each set of illustrations and text seems lead from a discussion of the history of spaceflight, to teaching it to the children, and finally a trip to the moon.

This sample page(s) seem to be discussing weightlessness:

We should remember that being taught about space in school was part of the Cold War. Each country felt that if their children were to be prepared for the coming rapid changes they had to be taught (and shown) what was coming in their lifetime.

In addition to telling children how the world would change, there is a lot of inspirational power in showing children doing these activities. Showing children on the Moon sticks with them a lot more than just telling about the possibilities.

These next two really show that it was not just about going to the Moon, but that it is the children of Russia who will go to the Moon.

Even with the crayon color, this is an image from an alternative universe, one where Lenin is on the Moon, and The Young Pioneers make field trips to see the statue. Afterwards they stay at the moonbase and do their merit badge science experiments . (Again my reader writes "By the way, in my opinion it is not Lenin statue on the interior picture. No one would be allowed to portray Lenin with a walking stick. It is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky most probably.")

4 comments:

I love your blog I really pleased I found it I will book mark it and be back for more!I had similar idea here's mine it mixes photos and books (from my smaller collection)http://nostalgia4dafuture.blogspot.com/

In fact, better translation is A Journey to the Moon. By the way, in my opinion it is not Lenin statue on the interior picture. No one would be allowed to portray Lenin with a walking stick. It is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky most probably.